Chrismas in Bologna, Italy. The holy and the profane.

The beginning of the Christmas' eve mass


During the celebration the priest claimed Christmas as "the celebrity of light, life and presents". Light because lights are lit up at Christmas time to recall the light Jesus brought in the world, life because he came into the world for us and presents because the exchanging of Christmas gifts is to recall the original gift that had been given to us (yes, of course, expecially for the brands and the shop owners). Besides, he often referred to the audience with the second person "you". "Even if YOU are desperate, sad.. etc. etc.. remember that it is for YOU that... it might be the very YOU... etc. etc.". The strategy of the "embrayage enunciatif" which allows the speaker to create a mock up of the addressee is often used in advertisement and brings an high level of involvement of the audience. See as an example:

Promotion. Isn't? For further reflections have a look at Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo, expecially the extract "Il miracolo di Lazzaro", a satire where it's represented a marketplace in a miracle in order to point out the marketing of miracles. Of course the priest intention may be oriented in a different direction, very charming for those who believe. But, for those who don't?

In the meantime, just behind me a group of boys and girls all well dressed up was discussing about which would have been the best club to spend the night, some people were talking about the food and refreshments thatwould have followed the function, some women were gossiping about how was becoming unpleasent and annoying that lady sitting opposite them and how unfashionable was her fur, I was taking the piss out of the gospel readers with a friend of mine and a few, disciplinate fellows were singing and praying with deep faith.

Despite the Christmas, the atmosphere in Bologna was everything but Christmas like. In one of the main squares of the city, Piazza Nettuno, directly in front of the cathedral of S. Petronio, a bolognese travelling musician called Beppe Maniglia had abandoned his guitar and his classical Beatles remakes and was playing techno-trance music that was supposed to come, he claimed, "directly from Rotterdam's best clubs". On the opposite side, meanwhile, the bells of the church were tolling.

...just behind him, the memorial portraits of the victims of the Nazi-fascism




Everything can be itself and its contrary. Christmas: the celebrity of shadows, death and marketing.